301667

John Floyer and Chinese Medicine Author(s): Boleslaw Szczesniak Source: Osiris, Vol. 11 (1954), pp.
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and Chinese JohnFloyer Medicine

The Heart governs the Tongue, that which is Heat in Heaven, Fire upon the Earth, Pulsation in the Body, is the Heart in the Members (i). JOHN FLOYER is one of the most interesting personalitiesin the early eighteenthcentury. His importance, however, is not as realized. But he is remarkablefor the study of yet sufficiently Chinese penetration into Western learning during the period was losing his when Western man, engaged in a self-conflict, himself with the admiration for the Old World and fortifying and scientific wisdom of the new world of Enlightenment progress. FLOYER resistedthisprogress. Instead he emphasizedthe achievements of ancient Chinese medicine, which, according to him, could not be surpassed by the modern advancementof learning. Therefore,he became involved in the celebrated quarrel between his defencewithtraditional the Ancientsand Moderns, buttressing Chinese medical thought. Owing, most probably, to the scarcity of source information the life of JOHN FLOYER (2) has not yet been studied in detail. Even the archivesof the cityof LICHFIELD, where FLOYER attained considerable eminence in the medical profession, do not have The Pulse-Watch (full title in the text of the present paper), vol. I, p. 236. There are short mentions of no particularvalue in the followingencyclopedias: Encyclopaedia Britannica, XIVth ed., vol. IX, p. 421; ibid., XIth ed., vol. X, p. 574, here is a list of FLOYER'S works; EnciclopediaItaliana, vol. XV, p. 567; The Cyclopaedia,or UniversalDictionaryof Arts, Sciences and Literature, vol. XIV (London, i8i9), p. 4. Q. 3-4; Enciclopedia UniversalIlustrada EuropeoAmericana,vol. XXIV (Barcelona, 1924), p. i82; see also The Dictionary ofNational Biography, vol. VII (reprint, London, 1921-1922), pp. 346-348; Sir D'ARCY POWER, British Masters of Medicine (Baltimore, William Wood and Company, 1936), pp. 17-23, "Sir John Floyer (i649-1734)" by James ANDREW GUNN, with a portraitof line drawing of Bodleian Library.
(i)
(2)
I28
B. SZCZESNIAK
material about him (3). It is generallyknown that he was born on April 25, i649, at Hints Hall, Hinters, in Staffordshire-near LICHFIELD, where he died in I734; and that with his name are connectedseveralcurious essays,one of which concernsthe human pulse (4). FLOYER's education at Oxford (i664-i68o) gave him a broad approach to life,an interest, typicalof his age, in unusual questions as well as an independence of thought. of studies That he was a man of many interestsand of a variety may be gatheredfromthe titlesof his various essays and the nature of his Oxford degrees. During his sixteenyears at Oxford many contemporaries,affected by the prevailing atmosphere of the contributedto the scientific university, progressof the day. To them belonged THOMAS SYDENHAM (I624-I68I), a student of clinical medicine; CHRISTOPHER WREN (i632-1723), eminent in geometryand applied mathematics; ROBERT BOYLE (I627-I69I) in naturalphilosophyand physiology;THOMAS WILLIS (i62I-i675) in cerebral anatomy; JOHN LOCKE (i632-I704) who took his B.M. in the same year and college as FLOYER; JOHN MAYOW (i643I679) celebratedin physiology and chemistry. Their recognition and fame undoubtedly stimulated FLOYER'S intellectual ability and interestin scientific subjects. Contemporary documentsat Oxford University give no detailed informationabout FLOYER's educational pursuits nor about his residence in Queen's College. ANTHONY A. WOOD noted in the Athenae Oxonienses (5) that
(3) Mr. P. LAITHWAITE of the Lichfield Archives kindly informed me that " He appears in there appears to be little documentarymaterial on FLOYER. the public records of the early i8th c. as establishing [sic] his celebrated cold bath near Lichfield-later takenover by Erasmus Darwin forhis Botanic Garden ". (4) For FLOYER's publications see: ANTHONY A. WOOD, Athenae Oxonienses, vol. IV, col. 533; National Biographical Dictionary,vo1. VII, P. 348; XIth ed. of Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. X, p. 574. Among the most outstanding of FLOYER'S writings may be mentioned: The Touchstone of Medicine, Discoveringthe Virtuesof Vegetables,Minerals and Animals by theirTastes and Smells (2 vol., Lichfield, i687). The Praeternatural State of Animal Humours Described by their Sensible Qualities (London, i696). An Enquiry into the Right Use and Abuses of the Hot, Cold and TemperateBaths in England (London, i697). The Sibylline Oracles, translatedfrom the Greek (London, 1713). An Essay to Prove Cold Bathing bothSafe and Useful(London,
1702).
(5) A WOOD,
ANTHONY,
Athenae Oxoniensesan Exact Historyof all the Writers
JOHN FLOYER AND CHINESE MEDICINE
I29
"John Floyer, son of Rich. Floyer of Hinters in Staffordshire, esq; became a com. of Queen's coll. In the beginningof the year i664, aged 15 years, took the degrees in arts, that of master being completed in i671, entered on the physic line, took the degrees in that faculty,practised in the city of Lichfield, became a knight,and much in esteem in those parts forhis practice ".
The Fasti Oxonienses (6) note that JOHN FLOYER of Queen's College graduated as B.A. on April i6, i668, as Bachelor of Physic on June27, i674, and as Doctor of Physic on July8, i68o. They added:
" John Floyer of Queen's College a compounder.-He was afterwards a knight, and a publisher of certain mattersin fol. and other vol. of his faculty,and therefore he is to be hereafternumbered among the Oxford writers" (7).
We maysurmisethathis vitalconcernto be universally educated, in the Bodleian Librarian his interest aroused great (of the year Dr. THOMAS HYDE (i636-I703) i659-I70i), (8), a famousorientalist and author of several treatises (9). HYDE was largelyresponsible for the growth of the collection of Arabic, Persian and Hebrew books and manuscripts,a collection which attractedthe interest of many students. At thattimethe Chinese collectionhad increasedthrough various donations,includingone previously given by ArchbishopWILLIAM LAUD; and Dr. T. HYDE in his pursuit of Oriental knowledge broughtfrom Rome in i687 a Chinese scholar, SHEN-Fu-TSUNG, PHILIPPE COUPLET who accompanied the celebrated Belgian Jesuit, (i624-i692), during his journey to Europe in i682-i692 (Io).
and Bishops who have had theirEducation in the University of Oxford. To which are added The Fasti, or Annals of the said University. By AnthonyA Wood, M.A., of Merton College. A New Edition with Additions,and a Continuation. By Philip Bliss, Fellow of St. John's College (4 vols, London, i8I3-I820), vol. IV, cols. 532-533. (6) Ibid., Second Part of the Fasti Oxonienses or Annals of the University of Oxford,vol. IV, cols. 30I, 344, 374. (7) Ibid., vol. IV, col. 374. vol. IV, cols. 522-527. (8) A. WOOD, Athenae Oxonienses, (g) Cf. GREGORIUS SHARPE, Syntagmadissertationum quas olimauctor doctissimus ThomasHyde S. T.P. separatimedidit ... Nec non de ejus vita scriptisque ... (2 vols., Londini, I767), vol. I, pp. I-XXXIV: " Prolegomena de vita et scriptis doctissimi viri Thomae Hyde, S.T.P." et bibliographiques (io) Louis PFISTER, S.J., Notices biographiques sur les Jdsuites de l'ancienne missionde Chine, I552-1773 (2 vols., Shanghai, 1932-I934), vol. I, PP. 307-3I3; Biographie nationale, publiee par l'Academie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique (27 vols., Bruxelles, I866-I938),
vol. VI, cols. 4I9-42I.
I30
B. SZCZESNIAK
This atmosphere of scientificand oriental studies undoubtedly influencedFLOYER'S interestin the Chinese medical treatises,the Mo Ching of WANG SHU-HO (ca A.D. 265-3I7), translatedfrom Chinese intoLatin by the famousPolish sinologue,MICHAEL PETER BOYM (i6I2-i659) (ii), and edited in the Specimen medicinae Sinicae by the Dutch physician,ANDREAS CLEYER, in i682. These shorttreatiseson the ancient art of interpreting the pulse became the basis of FLOYER'S future research upon the beating of the pulse, expounded in the essay, The PhysicianPulse-Watch, which he published in 2 volumes, I707-I7IO, in London. FLOYER practised in Lichfield at Golden Square and took an activepartin the public lifeof the city. In the Act of Corporation, promulgatedby King JAMES II on July6, i686, regulatingseveral corporations,we find the names of
" ... John Floyer, Knt. and Thomas Hammond, Justices of the Peace during theirnatural lives ... " (12).
When JAMES II came to Lichfield on August 31, i687, in his progress through England, he was accompanied to the city by the officers of the city of Lichfield. Among them,as is noted by THOMAS HARWOOD, was
" Sir John Floyer and Thomas Hammond, Justices" (13).
He observed that
" Sir John Floyer then an eminent physician, ... who practised at Lichfield ... seems to have been a Fellow of the Royal Society " (14).
The same city also brought FLOYER into intimateacquaintance withthe youthful son of a Lichfieldbookseller, MICHAEL JOHNSON:
(i i) Cf. Louis PFISTER, op. cit., vol. I, pp. 269-276; ROBERT CHABRIE, Michel Boym Jdsuite Polonais et la fin des Ming en Chine, i646-i662 (Paris, Pierre Bossuet, 1933), pp. 235-248. For further references to WANG SHU-HO, etc., See WONG K. CHIMIN, and Wu LIEN-TEH, History of Chinese Medicine: Being a Chronicle of Medical Happeningsin China fromAncientTimesto thePresentPeriod (Tientsin, 1932), pp. 39-47, 131-132, et seq.; FRAN;OIS-ALBIN D'ORLEANs LEPAGE, Recherches historiques sur la medecinedes Chinois (Paris, i813), pp. i6-57. (1 2) Cf. THOMAS HARWOOD, The History and Antiquitiesof the Church and City of Lichfield:Containingits Ancientand PresentState, Civil and Ecclesiastical; Collectedfrom Various Public Recordsand Other Authentic Evidences(Gloucester, Printed for Cadell and Davies, London, By Jos. Harris, i8o6), pp. 348-349. (I3) Ibid., pp. 308-309. (I4) Ibid., p. 449.
I31
the son was the future lexicographer, Dr. SAMUEL JOHNSON. JAMES BOSWELL notedin theLifeofJohnson (I 5) thatMrs. JOHNSON, motherof SAMUEL, followingthe superstitious belief in the virtue ofthe royaltouch,once carriedthe ailingyoungSAMUEL to London, where he was touched by Queen ANNE in I7II. " acted by the advice of the celebratedSir JOHN Mrs. JOHNSON
FLOYER, then a physician in Lichfield." BOSWELL (i6) remarked
with anti-Jacobeanfeelingthat the touch was withoutany effect, that his motherhad not carried him far enough, and should have taken him to Rome (I7). This factmay help to show whyFLOYER was interested in the primitive and superstitious medicine of
ancient China; and may be read alongside JOHN NICHOLS' entry in his Anecdotes, where he notes that JOHNSON, " who, a very
short time before his death, stronglypressed the Editor of these Anecdotesto give to the public some account of the life and work said, ' deserve recording' " (I8). in and wroteabout several unusual topics, FLOYERwas interested such as the preternaturalstate of animal humours, " the touchstone of medicine, discoveringthe virtuesof vegetables, minerals and animals," or " the rightuse and abuses of the hot, cold and temperate bath." To contemporaries, and to the people of
(I ) Cf. Life of Johnson, IncludingBoswell's Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides and Johnson's Diary of a Journal into North Wales, ed. by George Birkbeck Hill (6 vols., New York, Bigelow, Brown and Co., Inc. n.d.), vol. I, p. 49. (i6) Ibid., vol. I, p. 50. (17) The advice of FLOYER given to Mrs. JOHNSON was also noted by THOMAS HARWOOD's The History and Antiquitesof Lichfield,p. 449. For the description of the ceremony of royal touching see ibid., pp. 476-478, and p. 308. See also reference to the healing advice of FLOYER in THOMAS CARTE'S letterpublished by JOHN NICHOLS, Literary Anecdotes,vol. II, p. 502. For the full bibliographical note of the Anecdotessee next footnote. (i8) JOHN NICHOLS, Literary Anecdotesof the Eighteenth Century; Comprizing BiographicalMemoirsof WilliamBowyer,Printer, F.S.A. And Many of hisLearned Friends; An Incidental View of the Progressand Advencement of Literaturein this Kingdom During the Last Century; and Biographical Anecdotesof a Considerable Number of Eminent Writersand Ingenious Artists; With a Very Copious Index (London, Printedforthe Author,By Nichols, Son, and Bentley,at Cicero's Head, Red-Lion-Passage, Fleet Street, I812, the firstsix volumes; vols. 7-9 in 1813vol. V, p. i9. NICHOLS added that FLOYER's Treatise on Cold Baths was i8I5), printed in The Gentelman'sMagazine, 1734; and also that " An original portrait of FLOYER is preserved at Liechfield." My search reveals no certain portraitof FLOYER in Liechfield.
of Sir JOHN FLOYER, ' whose learning and piety', the Doctor
I32
B. SZCZESNIAK
Lichfield,he remaineda strongJacobean,his high positionsbeing traceable to the favour of JAMES 11(i9). That he seems to have been treated with indulgence may be inferredfrom an allusion by PACOLET (Sir RICHARD STEELE, i627-1729) in The Tatler(20)
" ... on the thirtieth day of my life,a fellow of the royalsociety, who had writ upon cold baths, came to visitme, and solemnlyprotested: upon which he souses me head and ears into a pale of water, where I had the good fortune to be drowned; ..." This allusion of Pacolet was to Sir John Floyer, Knt., M.D., who published An Enquiry into the Right Use and Abuse of the Hot, Cold and TemperateBaths in England in 1697.
He himselfrealized the comical figurehe cut in the eyes of his forhe admits it in the preface to the treatiseon contemporaries, the Pulse-Watch, "..., and tho' I be insulted with the Ridicule of my Learned Men, as I was at firstfor my book of Cold Baths, yet in time they will allow this tract may prove very useful, as well as the other" (2i). It mustbe remembered also thatthe formative years of FLOYER'S education and lifecoincided withthe quarrel betweenthe Ancients and Moderns which stirred many sensitive intellectsin Britain, among them FLOYER himself.
The fame of JOHN FLOYER for posterityshould rest ratheron his treatise on the pulse, The Physician Pulse-Watch,which led in due time to the introduction of a new medical method of pulseexamination. FLOYER regularly observed the behavior and beating of the pulse. To count the number of beats he invented a special glass watch, with the help of which he concluded that there was physical relationbetween the condition and the health of the whole body; and that the relationmightbe observed from the number of beats in a minute. "I caused," he says in the preface to the treatise, " a Pulse-Watch to be made which runs 6o Seconds, and I placed it in a Box to be more easily carried,and by this I now feel Pulses" (22). Though the accelerationof the
(OI)
(20)
p.
Cf. The Tatler, vol. I (London, 1797), No.

The Pulse-Watch,vol. I, f. 8v. Cf. vol. I, " The Preface," f. 4r.
Ut supra.
15,
Saturday, May 14,
1709,
140.
(2i)
(22)
1I33
pulse had been studied long before FLOYER, its beatingper rata, had not; nor had enough attentionbeen paid to its importance contribution in diagnosis. Now FLOYERadded the mostimportant to the medical examination,the countingof periodicityin pulsebeats. FLOYER believed that knowledge of the working of the pulse and its theoreticalfoundationwere based on ancient knowledge and on long experience. He had thereforeselected two of the study,thatof CAIUSGALENUS forcomparative mostancienttreatises of Greece and that of HUANG TI of China. GALEN (ca A.D. i30200), rankingsecond to HIPPOCRATES in the history of ancient physicianto examine medicine(23), is reputedto have been the first diseases. HUANG TI, the pulse for the purpose of identifying called by some Western scholars,the Yellow or as he is strangely Emperor (ca B.C. 2697-2597) (24), is the legendary founder of ancient Chinese medical art and its philosophy. From the writings, supposedly his, the classic on the pulse' by WANG SHU-HO is known to us (25). FLOYER in his essay explained and correlatedancient Greek medicine to that of the ancient Chinese. " by referenceto In addition, he correctedthe writers' " errors made duringhis long practice his knowledgebased on observations fromthose in Lichfield, arrivingat conclusions indistinguishable of the traditionalChinese learning. The long baroque sub-titles of the two volume treatise, or of FLOYER'S work explainthe contents rathercollectionof treatises, (see facsimiles).
(23) For handy reading in Greek medicine, and translatedexcerpts of Galen, see ARTHUR J. BROCK'S Greek Medicine, being Extracts Illustrative of Medical fromHippocratesto Galen. London, 1929. Writers (24) Cf. HERBERT ALLEN GILiEs, A Biographical Dictionary (London, I1898), WERNER, A Dictionary of Chinese Mythology(Shangai, Kelly p. 338.-E.T.C. and Walsh, Ltd.), pp. i86, 428. WU, History of Chinese Medicine, WONG and LIEN-TEH (25) Cf. K. CHIMIN pp. 17-23, 59-60, 132. See also ILZA VEITH, Huang Ti Nei Ching Su Wen (c): The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine. Chapters 1-34. Translated Study (Baltimore,The Williams and Williams from theChinesewithan Introductory Company, 1949), pp. 49. The " IntroductoryStudy " is a peculiar piece of researchand apparentlythis authordid not studyinfluenceof the Chinese medical interest in treatise of MICHAEL BOYM on seventeenth and eighteenth-century Chinese medicine. The translation of 34 books of the Classic ofInternalMedicine by Miss ILZA VEITH is of poor quality, but pleasant to read. It is not a valuable contributionto the study of traditionalChinese medicine in general.
I34
B. SZCZESNIAK
The title page ofthefirst volume: The Physician's Pulse-Watch; or, an Essay to ExplaintheOld Art ofFeeling the Pulse,and to Improve it by thehelpof a Pulse-Watch.In Three Parts. ;
Phyfcians sPu/fe-Watch; 0 A
Rs,
H E ~~~~T
I n Three -PARS I. The Old GalenicArt of FeelingthePulfe is andmany defcrib'd, of itsErrors correded: The trueUie of thePulfes, and their CQaufes, Differences and Prognoftications by them, are fully explain'd, and Dirca ionsgivenfor Feeling the Pulfe by the Pulfc-Watch, or . Mioute-Glafs. Methodis proposdfor Ir. A New Mechanical preferving Health)and prolonging Life, and forcuring Difeafes bythe helpof thePulfWatch,whichfhews thePulfes whea they exceed or-aredeficient from thenatural. [ll. The Chinefe Art of Feelingthe Pulfeis and theImitation defcrib'd; o their Prafice ofPhyfick, which is grounded on theObfervatron of the Pulfe,is recommended. Aa Extra&out of AndrewClver, concerning the Cinnefi Artof Feelinghbe PuNfM. rJo iNFLOY By-5I EK, KnigFt.
LONDOpr,Printed forshe Smitband Be").Wgford, at the Priwce's-Arms in St. APudS Cbureb.Zuwd, 1:707.
To ExplaintheOld Art ofF E E L I N G the P U L S E, andtoIMprove it bythe helpo a P U L S E-WA T C H.
To which isadde4,
I. The Old Galenic Art of Feeling the Pulse is describ'd,and many of its Errors corrected: The trueUse of thePulses, and their and PrognostiCauses, Differences cationsby them,are fully explain'd, and Directionsgivenfor Feeling the Pulse by thePulse-Watch,or Minute-Glass.
JOHN FLOYER
AND CHINESE
MEDICINE
I35
Watch:| j. Pulfe
(
0 L. VoL
OR,
To difcover of Difeafes,and a rational The Catifes Methodof curing thembyFeelingof thePU LS E.
areaddedas an APPENDIX. Thefe Eiluy5 by 1. An Efay to make a new SpbYgmologia,
and Evropein Oblervations the Cbinrfe accommodating about the Pulle.
which may be made by them in Difeafes.
E SSAY
AN
and Diffe intotheNature, Ufe. Caufes II. An Inquiry and thePrognoftications of theRefpiratio0s, rences in the Lungs, the Rripture III. A Letterconcerning
in Mankind, and ot whichi) the Caufe of the Afthtna the Broken-Wind In Horfis, and of the Crocke in the Hawks, with palliative Cute of thofe fcevral Difeales, and their Symptoms.
By Sir Jo
>~
H N F L O Y E R, ts4"B5stf4t
P WAM)-ix~ha
Knight.
p~
~
G
to~^;
t~&1
I~
jL11fe,11tX
~~X
j'I
bZS
DefinitfrVo
LO N D
0 V: Prgnt165 'hc Kn-s s.rmj in LoU. NAolrr*, lbp and bl. C a, W at thcHalf. LMJ, U..x InSt FPAl,. L huret v k 4%hcx
Fig. I-2. The titlepages, volume one and two, of Floyer's English adaptation of ancient Chinese wisdom concerning the human pulse. London I707-I0. (Courtesy of Army Medical Library).
I36
B. SZCZESNIAK
II. A New Mechanical Method is propos'dfor preserving Health, and prolonging Life, and for curingDiseases by the help of the Pulse-Watch, whichshewsthe Pulses when theyexceed or are deficient from the natural. III. The Chinese Art of Feeling the Pulse is describ'd; and the Imitation of their Practice of Physic,whichis groundedon the Observation of thePulse, is recommended. To which is added, An Extract out of Andrew Cleyer, concerning the ChineseArt of Feeling thePulse. By Sir John Floyer, Knight. London, Printed forSam. Smith and Benj. Walford,at the Prince's-Armsin St. Paul's
Church-Yard,
I 707.
The title page of the second volume: The Pulse Watch: or, An Essay To discoverThe Causes of Diseases, and a rational Method of curingthem byFeelingof thePulse. TheseEssays are added as an Appendix. I. An Essay to make a new Sphygmologia,by accommodating the Chinese and European Observations about Pulse. II. An Inquiry into the Nature, Use, Causes and Differences of the Respirations, and the Prognostications whichmay be made by themin Diseases. III. A Letterconcerning theRupturein theLungs, whichis the Cause of theAsthma in Mankind, and of the Broken-Windin Horses, and of the Crocke in Hawks, with the palliative Cure of those several Diseases, and their Symptoms. By Sir John Floyer, Knight. [a Greek quotation fromGalen].-London: Printed forJ. Nicholson, at the King's Arms in Little Britain; W. Taylor, at the Ship; and H. Clemens's, at the Half-Moon in St. Paul's Church-Yard, MDCCX.-
In his dedication of the book (26) to Queen ANNE FLOYER referred to the ancientprotectors of the physicians:
" I might here informYour Majesty, that the Author I have made most use of in this Treatise, obtain'd the Favour of three Roman Emperors(27), by his Labours on the Subject; and that an Emperor of China did not thinkit unworthy of Him, to write a Book upon it" (28).
He adds cautiously that "Your Majesty's great goodness and Humanity wants no Excitements from Examples of this
nature..." (29).
The two-volumework of FLOYER is an essay on the pulse and its anatomy, on diagnostic method, on the prognosticationof diseases, on cures of ill-healthby actingaccordingto the behaviour of the pulse and preparation of effective medicaments. These, as we said, combined Galenic medicine, his own research, and
(26) (27)
FLOYER refers to the EmperorsSEPTIMIUS SEVERUS (A.D. 193-21 I), MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONIUS (A.D. i6i-i8o) and Lucius VERUS (A.D. I6I-I69).
(28) (29)
The Pulse-Watch, vol. I, ff. I-3v.
Ibid., f. 3r. Ibid., f. 3v.
I37
Chinese scholarship. But fromthe whole work it is evident that he was charmed by the ancient Chinese lore of the pulse which included also philosophico-cosmologicalprinciples discovered in the microcosm of the human body which depended for its lifegiving motion upon the circulation of blood. The pulse was an indicatorof the harmonyin the microcosm, or of its unbalance due to a varietyof causes, physical or preternatural. The harmonyin the microcosmdepended on the condition and on the influenceof the macrocosm. The macrocosm reproducedin the human body was a cosmologicalcause of sickness relationship and of health,and it alwaysremainedin a supernatural with the positive and negativeelementsin the microcosm. In the prefaceto the book Sir JOHN FLOYER explains his specific point of view on the value of Chinese pulse learning: (30)
" Tho' neitherthe Greeks nor the Chinese knew the true Fabrick of the Organs of the Pulse, nor their true action and uses, nor the Circulation of Humours, and the causes of it; yet the Greeks discovered the Pulses of all Diseases and Humours, and Passions: And the Chinese founded their Art of Physic on the when more quick, great, frequent,was obvious to, the Pulse and its differences; Pulses were evident touch; and this produces the hot Diseases, and the contrary which produced the Cold. The Cacochymias were the causes of all Diseases with the Greeks, but because those cannot explain all Diseases, and they are sometimes very obscure, or much mixed with one another: I shall endeavour to adjust the Cacochymia (3I) to several numbers of the Pulse, by which they may be known, and will prefer the Chinese Practice to that of the Greeks as most obvious and certain, and short, and assert that upon that we may build all the Practice of Physick".
the fullness From thisevaluationwe see thatSir JOHN, exercising of his emotionsand curiosity, studiedChinese medical veryseriously art in which he found indirect support for his own method of counting pulse-beats and for the use of his medical instrument, -thepulse-watch. In the firstvolume, part one (pp. I-I65), FLOYER described the old Galenic art of feeling the pulse " and " corrected many of its errors", together with " true use of the pulses, and their
The Pulse-Watch, vol. I, f. 5r-5v. For cacochymiaor the " animal spirits" of FLOYER we may findexplanation in GALENSwriting On Habits. "...thus some people having bad regimen,and others through an unhealthybodily constitution, developed a plethora of blood or a morbid state of the humours (cacochymy) ...", A. J. BROCK, op. cit., p. I90, see also pp. 231, 236.
(30) (3
I)
I38
B. SZCZESNIAK
and prognostications causes, differences by them..., and directions given forfeelingthe pulse by the Pulse-Watch,or Minute-Glass." In Part II (pp. i67-226), he proposed " a new mechanicalmethod and forcuringdiseasesby forpreserving health,and prolonging life, the pulses when theyexceed or are deficientfromthe natural." But the English adaptation of the Chinese learningconcerning from theANDREAS the pulse, and medicinein general,takendirectly medicinae the bulk CLEYER edition of Specimen Sinicae, constituted of partthreeof which two chapters and the appendix are directly paraphrased fromthe Latin text(32). In the introductory paragraphof " Chapter I. Concerningthe Chinese Art of feeling the Pulse, and their Practice of Physick grounded on the Knowledge of the Pulse" he refers to the reading-materialwith which he was acquainted; to the works of ATHANASIUS KIRCHER, S.J., (i6o2-i68o), of ALVAREZ DE SEMEDO S.J. (I585-i658), of Louis LE COMTE, S.J., (i655-1728), and of DoMINICUs NAVARETTE, O.P., (d. I689); and to the reportof the embassy sent to China by the Dutch East India Company in i655. We may judge that he was well read in the mattersof Chinese medical art, but he did not introduceinto his discussion of the pulse any particular referencesto their works, confining to the treatises himself published by A. CLEYER and to generalities: " I thinkmyselfobliged in this Treatise about the Art of feeling the Pulse, to make some remarkson the Chinese skill in that Art; and I will firstprove that they have really great Knowledge in that Practice, and that they may well build a Practice of Physick on theirArt of feelingthe Pulse... I will prove by the following Relations,that the Chinese have found out the real Art of feeling Then, fascinatedby the " Chinese Skill ", FLOYER even adopted their prognostications of health and life, showing to the reader all their Diseases, without asking them any Questions " (34).
"... how we must imitate the China Practice, and tell the Vulgar the Pulse... " (33).
(32) The Pulse-Watch, vol. I, pp. 227-297. Chapter II, pp. 298-328 (instead of " III ", as is erroneously printed)containsthe tables of pulse beatingaccording to sex, age, and season fromthe FLOYER'S own data. This chapter is a supplementationof Chinese observationsof pulses by FLOYER's research. (33) The Pulse-Watch, vol. I, p. 228. (34) Ibid., p. 253.
I 39
The whole effort, of the physician,therefore, would be to restore " the pulse to its natural state" because all diseases might be reduced to an excessivelyfast or excessively slow circulationof the blood and beating of the pulse (35). Physicians also are advised to followthe Chinese custom,to be theirown " apothecaries", like Chinese practitioners who " when they Visit their Patients, ... carry a Servant loaded with their Medicines" (36). Describingthe portableapothecary, the "Physician's Cabinet," he followsSEMEDO's description: " fiveDrawers, with forty Squares in each Physician's Cabinet, which makes their Simples to amount to two Hundred " (37). Imitating this, FLOYER proposed " an English Cabinet of Medicines " with all medicines arranged," by their Tastes "; and he did not confine himself " to English Simples, but chose those which are most easilyprocur'd among us; and it mustbe observ'd,thatthe Chinese have their Gensemfrom Tartary; and since we have Coffeeand Thea, and Chocolate,which are part of our diet fromIndia, why shall we not have our Medicines thence, if they exceed ours in Virtue? " (38). The Cabinet is thus anotherinvention of the Lichfieldphysician, which, like his Pulse-Watch, was inspiredby the growingChinese vogue in England, and by the rising myth of preeminence of ancient China, in the age of English sinophilism. The third chapter is entitled " The Physician's Cabinet, divided into Drawers, according to the several Physical-Tastes in general; and each Drawer is sub-divided accordingto the several Species comprehendedunder the general Taste, and the cheapest and most effectual must be chosen for his Practice" (pp. 329-337). In that short chapter, as in the preceding one, the credulous author accepted superstitiousChinese simples and prescriptions, in some places substituting locally obtainable ingredients, where native Chinese ones were not available. Thus he arranged two hundred natural simples for the English Physician's Cabinet and included, for example in the drawer of animal medicines, the following:
(35) Ibid., p. 274. (36) Ibid., p. 253. (37) Ibid., p. 253. (38) Ibid., p. 253.
I40
B. SZCZESNIAK
" The Animal Stones, Bezoar Stones, Goa Stones, Pearls, Bones; Mucilaginous Parts, Horns, Pisles, Teeth, Isinglass; Bitters, Tinctures of Galls, Eeles, Livers and Frogs; Caustic Tastes, Bees, Cantharides,Woodlice; Salso Acid, Urine, Sal Armoniac; Faetids, Viper Powder, or Viper Wine, Bores Stones, Worms; the OdoriferousCivet, Musk; the ferousTastes, distill'd Milk; the unctuous Tastes, Butter, and the Axungias and Fats, Sperma Ceti " (39).
If Sir JOHN FLOYER deserves some criticism because
of his
blind credulityin acceptingthe primitive of ancient prescriptions China, it should be rememberedthat the early eighteenth century in Europe saw small advance in materia medica. FLOYER lived on seventeeth-century knowledge. VESALIUS and HARVEY contributed much in the field of anatomy, but the pharmacopoea included, to the end of the eighteenth century,the most fantastic medicaments. Thus in the renowned encyclopaedictextbookon materia medica by a prominentauthorityof the time, MICHAEL
BERNARD VALENTINI (i657-I729)
whose workwas entitledAurifodina medica...seu historia simplicium reformata, we find a chapter on the medical use of mummies, De mumis pinguedine humana, cranio, vesicae felleae et urinariae calculis " (41). No wonder that FLOYER accepted in good faith medicaments and prescriptionswhich were grounded in superstition but which seemed to have stood the testof time longer than European remedies and which had been used, according to his belief, before the Greek and Roman medicinal simples. The mostinteresting partofthefirst volume,whichtraces FLOYER'S curiosityin the Chinese medical treatises of WANG SHU-HO and their influence upon English sinophilism, is " An Appendix,
(39) Ibid., vol. I, 335. It was eleventhdrawer according to the rearrangement of the portable apothecary imitatingthe Chinese. (40) Cf. Allgemeine deutsche Biographie,vol. XXXIX (Leipzig, i895), pp. 468469. He displayed his knowledge of nature and medical scholarship in the following textbookso characteristic of the time he lived in: Mich. Bernh. Valentini Archiatr. Hasso-Darmstatini et PP. Ord. Gisseni medicina nov-antiqua tradens universaemedicinaecursum, e scriptis Hippocraticisad mentem modernorum erutum. Editio secundacumfig. aeneispriorilongeauctioret correctior. Acceduntmiscellanea curiosa et fructifera de novellarum publicarum usu et abusu in rebusphysico-medicis. Dissertatio melico-medica depulsu,cumurocriterio medico-politico. Triga remediorum antipodagricorum, novissimorum aeque ac probatissimorum.Allocutionespromotoriales, sub diversis decanatusacademiciannis ab autoreprolata. Cum indicererum et verborum copiosossimo. Francofurtiad Moenum, impensis Joan, Maximiliani a Sande, MDCCXIII. Aurifodina,pp. 287-293. We quote the second edition, Gissae-Franco(4I) furti,1723.
(40), a contemporary of FLOYER'S,
141
containing an Extract of the Chinese Art of feeling the Pulse to the Honourable CHARLES HATTON "(42). fromCLEYER: In a letter The letter was addressed to the Hon. CHARLES HATTON (43), Brother of CHRISTOPHER VISCOUNT HATTON of Gretton, an antiquarian, who displayed " the taste for arboriculturewhich he had in common with his brother,... and had more than ordinary learning." Among HATTON's books were evidentlymany other publications on Far Eastern natural science, apart from that on Chinese medicine by A. CLEYER, which he loaned to Dr. FLOYER. In a letterto his brother,Viscount HATTON, dated December I2, I 699, he prides himself on Lord PEMBROKE'S having presented him with the twelve-volumeHortusIndicus Malabaricus (44). " It is ye Hortus Amstelo-damensis,most nobly printed,with rare cutts of choice and Indian plants, ... " (45). Doctor FLOYER in elegant language sets out, in the introductory paragraph of the " Appendix," the contentsof his translation
"Sir, I am very much pleas'd with Andrew Cleyer's book, which I lately borrow'd of you, and I made the followingextractout of it, which I am obliged to present you; not only as an acknowledgment of the favouryou did me; but that I might procure some respect to my design (of explaining the obscure account of the Chinese art) by the great esteem the publick has foryour learningand judgment. In reading this book, I reduc'd all my observationsto the followingheads. i. The Chinese directions for feeling of the pulse. 2. The mistakes of the Chinese in this art. of the pulse obser'd by the Chinese. 3. The differences 4. The alterationsof the pulse by the non-naturals,and diseases. 5. The prognostications by the pulse. 6. The cure of the preternatural pulses by simple medicines " (46).
The letterto HATTON ends with thanksforthe loan of the book to Dr. FLOYER, his " very much oblig'd Friend, and humble Servant" (47).
(42)
of the Family of (43) Cf. EDWARD MAUNDE THOMPSON (ed.), Correspondence Hatton Beeing ChieflyLetters Addressed to Christopher First Viscount Hatton, A.D. i60i-I704 (2 vols.; London, Camden Society, i878), vol. I, p. 6o. regni Malabarici apud Indos cele(44) Hortus Indicus Malabaricus, continens berrimi omnis generis plantas variores... Amstelodami,MDCLXXVIII.-CarmeliteFathers of Malabar mission supplied materialforthissuperb botanical publication. of theFamily of Hatton, vol. II, p. 243. (45) See Correspondence (46) The Pulse-Watch, vol. I, pp. 339-340.
The Pulse-Watch, vol. I, pp. 339-424.
(47) Ibid.,p. 424.
I 42
B. SZCZESNIAK
" An Appendix" is not an integral part of the original text, but an adaptation of passages of various lengthsintermixedwith notesand condensedversionsofthe Latin translation ofthe Chinese. FLOYER at firstpresents the structureof the human microcosm aand its relationto the macrocosm:
" The Chinese have corrupted their Art of feeling the Pulse by mixing their Philosophy of the fiveElements with it, as fromWater trees are produc'd, from Trees Fire, fromthatEarth, fromEarth Metals, fromMetals Water again; so from the Reins the Liver is generated, from that the Heart, from that the Stomach, from thence the Lungs, from them the Reins. And some property of these Elements they attributeto each Member; to the Heart Fire and Bitterness, which appears most in Summer; to the liver Spirits and Acidity, which appears in the Spring; to the Lungs an Acrid or Adust Taste, like thatof Metals; and thisappears most in Autumn to the Reins and Ureters the nature of Water, which is most common in Winter; to the Stomach and Spleen they ascribe a sweet Taste, and they compared them to moist Earth; they say the Reins communicate their Qualities to the Liver, the Liver to the Heart and the Heart to the Stomach, etc." (48).
Next, he criticallyevaluated Chinese conceptions of anatomy based on primitive, astrologicalnotionsof the universe.
" I will fartherobserve, that the Chinese have corrupted this Art by mixing Astronomical Observations with those of the Pulse; they believed there is a Circulation of Blood and Spirits in twentyfour hours, and that their imaginary Circulation of the Calidum and HumidumRadicale, correspondswith the Circumvolution of the Heavens; they say the Circulation is performedfifty times in twentyfour hours, and in the same time the Heavens move thro' fifty Hours; but we know all this is a mistake, because the Blood circulates once in three or four minutes. They make twelve ways of the primigenialHeat, and of the Humidumradicale, six upwards and six downwards,all of which seems veryPhantastical; unless they understand by this, that the several six Members and the Six Appendices communicate their Cacochymias to several Parts; so the Choler and the Aeruginose Humour is communicated to the Spirit, Urine, Stools, Vomits, and in the solid Parts it produces an Erisipelas, in the Head, Madness, Deafness, and there must be so many ways of the salt Humour and Choleric. And if it be objected, that their mistakes in Anatomy will make the Chinese Art fallible" (49).
The credulityof Sir JOHN was extreme,especially considering the age he lived in and the place he had so long held in medical practice, and the general acceptance of HARVEY'S teaching on blood circulation. He seems to have followedthe prognostications of Chinese medical quacks included in his translation, of which
(48) Ibid., p. 351. (49) Ibid., pp. 354-355.
143
theircharacter and meaning: we select a fewat randomto illustrate " If the Nerves be destroyed: Death on the 8th or 9th Day, a sign of which is a blue colour in the Nails" (50). " If the Heart be destroyed: Death afteri or 2 days " (5I). " If the Flesh be destroyed,Death after 6 days, as in Blody Stools: Death after 6 days, or 9, if there be a Tumour in the Feet" (52). " If the great Intestines are destroyed: This is Incurable, ' tis known by a continualFlux and Death comes when it stops "'(53). " If the bones are destroyed,the Teeth are yellow, the Pulse undose: Death after io days " (54). The concluding pages (pp. 425-440) of Floyer's firstvolume recapitulatedhis observations,puttingforwardthe idea that the Greek and Chinese medical theorieshad been essentially identical, and valid because based on ancient practice and proved by experience(55). He ends with the sententious remark: " Our Lives are mesur'dby theNumberofourPulses, thefirst Pulse begins Life, and it ceases with the last; if the Number of one Day be wonderful, the many Millions which will happen in One Hundred Years, ought to be reckon'd among the greatestMiracles of the Creation " (56). In part one of the second volume FLOYER published his own contribution to medical studies,a treatiseon the pulse, the " Essay to discover the Causes and Diseases, and a rational Method of curing them by Feeling of the Pulse" (57). Explaining different diseases and theirrelationto the pulse he gave new prescriptions
(50) Ibid., p. 398. (51) Ibid., p. 398. (52) Ibid., p. 398. (53) Ibid., p. 399. (54) Ibid., p. 399. (55) Cf. The Pulse-Watch,vol. I, p. 428: " Since 'tis objected by the Modems, That the Chinese are Ignorant in Philosophy and Anatomy, and therefore their Pretence to the Knowledge of the Pulse is Cheat and Imposture; to this I have already answe'd that many judicious Travellers do positively assert, that they have this Art; and I have already describ'd it, and I desire the Reader to consider these Things which evidentlymanifesttheir Art.-All Arts are grounded on a long Experience, and the Chinese have had above 4000 years knowledge in this Art, as appears by their old book Nuy Kim; (56) Ibid., pp. 439-440. (57)T he PhysicianPulse-Watch,vol. II, pp. 1-254.
I0
I44
B. SZCZESNIAK
proved by his long practice. Although the treatiseis thorough, FLOYER oscillated between the old Greek and Chinese doctrines and his own experimentsand observations. He found that in fits of the gout the pulse " is quick, frequent and great" (58), that " in the Phrenzy it is small, hard, very quick and frequent, and convulsive" (59), and also that " pains make the Pulse more vehement, quicker and more frequent,but when it is increas'd to weaken the vital Spirits,the Pulse becomes less, more languid, quick and frequent, and at last languid,small,veryfrequent" (6o). He seems to be lost in the descriptionof the pulse beating, and undoubtedly took his phraseologyand technical terms from the Chinese terminology, so similar (and so complicated) in respect to various diseases that affected pulse behaviour. In the second part of the same volume (6i) there are three treatises of which the first (6z) is " An Essay to make a New Sphygmologia, by accommodating the Chinese and European Observationsabout the Pulse ". This essay in the volume is the only one directlyconnected with the SpecimenmedicinaeSinicae (CLEYER's edition). FLOYER explains again the types of Chinese pulse to be detectedaccordingto the Chinese wayand gives " some Remarksupon the otherParts of the Chinese Art, to show which we must retain, and which we must,reject" (63),-in the light of modern anatomical knowledge. The second volumeis dedicatedto the Duke of MARLBOROUGH. In the dedication(64) Sir JOHN remarked withan air of confidence that he had improvedthe art of feelingthe pulse by observations both fromthe Chinese and old European physicians. He added panegyricallyto please the affable duke: "I must confess, to my great Confusion, that the Modern Author falls as far short of the Ancients,as the English General surpassesthe Romans ".
(58) Ibid., p. 158. (59) Ibid., p. i84. (60) Ibid., p. 192. (6I) Ibid., pp. 255-468. (62) Ibid., pp. 255-328. (63) Ibid., pp. 321-328. (64) Ibid.,ff.ir-4v.
JOHNFLOYER AND CHINESEMEDICINE
I45
FLOYER did not realize that ANDREAS CLEYER'S work, Specimen medicinae Sinicae... published in Francfurt in i682, was a plagiarized edition of MICHAEL BOYM'S book on Chinese medicine(65). CLEYER admitted in a rather peculiar way that the firstthree treatises were written by an " eruditus Europeaus ", but at the
same time he hid his name and excluded his authorshipfromthe rest of the book. The full title of this edition is as follows:
Specimen medicinae Sinicae, sive opuscula medica ad mentemSinensium,continensI. De pulsibuslibrosquatuor e Sinico translatos. II. Tractatus de pulsibus ab erudito Europaeo collectos. III. Fragmentumoperis medici ibidem ab erudito Europaeo conscripti. IV. Excerpta literiseruditiEuropei in China. V. Schemata ex linguae ad meliorem praecedentium intelligentiam. VI. De indiciis morborum coloribus et affectionibus.Cum figuris aeneis et ligneis: edidit Andreas Cleyer Hasso-Casselanus, V. M. Licent.Societ. Indiae in nova Batavia archiater, pharmacop. et chirurg director ephorus. Francofurti:SumptibusYoannis Petri Zubrodt. Anno M. DC. LXXXII.
Justicewas done by the Belgian Jesuit, PHILIPPE COUPLET, who reeditiedthe workand vindicatedthe authorshipof the celebrated Polish sinologue, MICHAEL PETRUS BOYM:
de pulsibus,autore R. P. Michaele Boymo, Clavis medica ad Chinarumdoctrinam e Soc. Yesu, et in China missionario. Hujus operis ultra vigenti annosjam sepulti fragmenta,hinc inde dispersa, collegit et in gratiam medicae facultatis in lucem M. D. et SocietatisBatavo-Orentalis europaeamproduxitCl. Dn. Andreas Cleyerus, totiusoperis exemplar,e China recens protomedicus. A quo nunc demummittitur R. P. Philippo Capletio, Belga, e Soc. allatum, et a mendis purgatum, procuratore missionis Romam misso. Anno. MDCLXXXVI. [Nuremberg]. Yesu, chinensis
Couplet's editionmade no textualchanges in the treatises and, therefore,FLOYER'S own version stands in an identical relation withboth editions. However, COUPLET put the whole dissertation on the pulse in the changed order of treatises,dividingthem into eighteen chapters augmented with new material from BOYM'S
manuscripts. M. BOYM's work contains translations of four books from Mo chingor Pulse Classic by WANG CHU-HO (ca A.D. 28o) and other
Chinese medical writings from the Chinese treatise mostly compiled on the basis of the Nei chingor the Classic of Internal Medicine ascribed to the Emperor HUANG TI. The classic, Nei ching,is referredto by BOYM as Nuy Kim. The manuscriptof BoYM's
(65) Cf. GOTTLIEB SIEGFRIED BAYER, Museum Sinicum in quo Sinicae linguae et litteraturae ratio explicator(z vols., Petropoli, Ex Typis Acad. Imperatoriae), vol. I, pp. 28-29; ROBERT CHABRIt, Michel Boym Jisuite Polonais, pp. 237-248.
146
B. SZCZESNIAK
compilation was sent in I658 by Father PHILIPPE COUPLET to Batavia to be safely dispatched to Europe by the Dutch East India Company. Hence the manuscriptfound its way to ANDREAS CLEYER, chief physicianof the Company in Batavia (66), who published it under his name. FLOYER was not recognized by contemporary scientists,nor is he appreciated today. His name is alien to the historians of culture(67). A. HALLER said elegantly about him: " Eques medicus, apud exteros vir non satis notus,... mereturmagis innotescere" (68). His writingsdid not influencemuch medical thought,except in the matterof the measurementof pulse-beats per minute. His treatise The Pulse-Watch might induct some people into the study of Chinese medicine and arouse stronger interest in that lore. We may guess only that the translation fromFrenchintoEnglishofthe SecretofthePulse (69), by RICHARD BROOKES, contained in J. B. Du HALDE's Description geographique, historique, chronologique, politique de l'empirede la Chine..., may have been provoked by FLOYER'S treatise. On the other hand the workof Du HALDE was well received in France (70), and even without FLOYER'S work might have been translatedinto English, as its appearence coincided with the rise of French and English chinoiserie. The real proof of the importanceof FLOYER'S treatise on the pulse is found in the Italian translation by an anonymousEnglishman livingin Italy,-" un CavaliereInglese dimorante in Toscana" -published by the Universityof Padua (Venice 1715):
(66) Cf. K. CHIMIN WONG and Wu LIEN-TEH, History of Chinese Medicine (Author also compiled a list of foreign bibliography, pp. 643-650). Louis PFISTER, Notices biographiques et bibliographiques, vol. I, pp. 274-275. (67) Even WILLIAM W. APPLETON in his valuable monograph, A Cycle of Cathay: The Chinese Vogue in England during the Seventeenthand Eighteenth Centuries,did not mention the name of JOHN FLOYER. (68) I have not been able to check the quotation,and I repeat afterJ. A. GUNN, The Medical Press Circular,October 3rd, 1934, p. i, London, 1934. Prof. GUNN did not mention FLOYER'S interestin Chinese medicine. (69) JEAN BAPTISTE Du HALDE, Descriptiongdographique, historique,chronologique,politiquede l'empirede la Chine et de la Tartarie chinoise... (4 vols., Paris, 1735), vol. III, pp. 384-436: " Secret du puls, traduitde chinois." (70) HENRI CORDIER, BibliothecaSinica, vol. I, cols. 45-52.
"British Masters of Medicine: Sir John Floyer (i649-1734) ", reprint from
147
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oftheessayson thehuiman pulse Fig. 3. The titlepage ofthe Italianversion ThePulse-Watch. theoriginal, from Venice r7p5. translated Floyer, bySir John ofArmy Medical Library). (Courtesy
148
B. SZCZESNIAK
L'oriuolo da polso de mediciovveroun saggioper ispiegarel'arte antica di tastare il polso, e' per megliorarlacoll' ajuto d'un oriuolo da polso. In tre parti. I. Si moltierrori: l'arte antica di tastareil polso secondoGaleno, e se ne corregono descrive e pronostici se ne ritraggono, l'uso vero de polsi; le sue cause, differenze, pieniamente spiegati colle direzioniper tastare il polso coll'oriuolodi minutia polvere. II. Si propone un novo metodomeccanicoper conservarela salute, e prolungarela vita, e curar malattie per mezzo dell'oriuolo da polso, che dimostraquando eccendo,o mancanoallo stato naturale. (See facsimile). III. Si descrive l'arte di tastare il polso secondo i Chinesi, e si mette in considerazione l'imitare il modo, che praticano nel medicare, fondato sopra l'osservazione del polso. Aggiuntovi un' estratto da Andrea Cleyer sopra l'arte de Chinesi per tastare il polso. Opera del sign. cav. Gio: Floyer Inglese tradotta da un Cavaliere Inglese dimorante in Toscana. In Venezia, MDCCXV. Appresso Gio: Gabriello Erz. Con licenza de' superiori, e privilegio. (In 4-0, ff I, 7, pp. 296).
The publicationof the translation was authorizedby the imprimatur of the censor of the Universityof Padua, TOMASSO MARIA GENNARI, attestingthat the book of FLOYER is not against the Catholic Faith nor against good customs, and could be printed by GABRIEL HERTZ of Venice. The imprimatur ofthe University is an interesting document of the time(71):
Noi reformatori dello studio de Padoa. Havendo veduto per la fede di revisione, e approbatione del P. F. Tomasso Maria Gennari Inquisitore nel libro intitolato: Oriuolo da Polso, etc. opera del Sign. Cav. Gio: Floyer Inglese non v' esser cos' alcuna contro la Santa Fede Cattolica, et parimente per attestatodel Segretario nostro; niente contro Prencipi, e buoni costumi, concedemo licenza a Gabriel Hertz Stampatore che possi esser stampato, osservando gl' ordini in materia di stampe, e presentando le solite copie alle Publiche Librarie di Venetia, e di Padoa.-Dat. i8. Novembre 17I4.-Francesco Loredan Kav. Proc. Reff.,Alvise Pisani Kav. Proc. Reff.,Agostino Gadaldini Segr. (72). (7 I) Cf. L'oriolo da polso, f. 8r. (72) Following are the contents of the Italian translation relating directly to the " Chinese " part of the book: Parte terza. Capo primo (pp. I57-i88): Dell' arte de' Chinesi di tastareil polso, della loro practica della medicina, fondatasulla cognizione del polso. Una quotazione sopra il Nuy Kim.-Capo secondo (pp. I89-207) Del metodo della cura per via del polso piui particolarmente descritto. II polso come ci dirigerai nel cavar sangue, e purgare, che sono i remedi per la pienezza.-Come saremo direttidal polso nella purza.-Come il polso dirigerai nell' uso de' diuretici, diaforetici,e tutti gli alteranti.(Pp. 228-292) Una giunta contenenteun estrattodell' arte Chinese di tastare il polso, del Cleyer in una lettera all' onorando Carlo Hatton: Alcune rifflessioni sopra gli erroriche la Chinese pa attornoa i polsi.-Le differenze del polso osservate da' Chinesi. Sette polsi al di fuori.-Otto polsi al di dentro, ovvero il diffetivo polso.-I polsi fuori del naturale della Via Cordis, ovvero della collerica Cacochimia.-I polsi della via della Vescica.-I polsi de' polmoni.-I polsi fuor
149
For students of Far-Eastern-Western relations it is important to theirfield,and espeto note that JOHN FLOYER is a contributor cially that he seems to be as yet unknown to them. Even the and learned late ProfessorPAUL PELLIOT, who in his illuminating contribution, " MICHEL BoYM " (73), lengthily dwelt on the Sinicae (74), and ostenClavis medicaand the Specimenmedicinae sibly assertedthat he had explored all available material,did not ABEL mentionthe English versionof FLOYER. Previously,neither REMUSAT in 1825 (75) nor ROBERT CHABRIE' (76) in I933, both to the study of Chinese mediinterestedin BOYM's contribution cine, had discoveredFLOYER'S work. Perhaps theirlack of discovof modernscholars of the interest ery may lie in the superficiality in XVIIth and XVIIIth century English sinophilism. That sector of civilizationis to a great extent of the English historiography neglected.
The forgotten essay of JOHN FLOYER is not a fruitexclusively of his studies and professionalinterest in medical writing, nor of the risingChinese vogue in England; it resultedratherfrom the celebrated quarrel started in France in the second half of the seventeenthcenturyabout the comparativevalue and importance of ancient and modern learning. French scholars, especially BERNARD LE BOVIER DE FONTENELLE (I657-1757) and CHARLES PERRAULT (i628-1703), inspiredby the rise of the artsand of science
di natura, dello stomaco. Nove vie del polso, paragonate a nove stelle, nove regioni, nove membra.-Prognostici pe'l polso.-Una tavola per la prognosticazione Chinese dalla intermissionede' polsi.-Prognostici concernentilo struggimento delle membra, cioe de' sangui Cacochimici.-Polsi, e prognosticide differenti stagioni, essendo fuori del naturale.-La cura de' polsi alla Chinese.-Un catalogo di medicine come mentovatedal Cleyer. E una delle forti,o acri. 2. gli amari. 3. medicine false. 4. l'acide. 5. le dolci.-Alcune considerationisopra i computi Chinesi. Pao, No. I-2, vol. XXXI (1934), pp. 95-I5I. (73) Toung (74) Ibid., pp. I38-I5I. (75) ABEL REMUSAT, " Sur la medecine des Chinois ", Melanges asiatiques, vol. I (I825), pp. 240-252. " Expose critique des ecrits du P. (76) Michel Boym, ch. II, pp. 2II-248: Michel Boym."
150
B. SZCZESNIAK
during the age of Louis XIV (77), started a violent contention between " Ancients" and " Moderns ". The firstgroup supported the classic philosophyand learningas the highestachievement of mankind and the cornerstoneof modern learning. The second faction, the Moderns, extolled modern and scientific learning,though with disregardof its background,and even with some contemptforthe ancient period of classic culture(78). In England the " querelle " took rootslong beforethe heated French disputes. Sir FRANCIS BACON (79) in his Magna restauratio condemned antiquity and the Greek reliance on the reason so typicallyrepresentedin Aristotelian philosophy,the " contentious and thorn" magisterialteaching(80). The quarrel, born in France, separatingwriters intotwo hostile of camps, broughtEnglish men lettersand science into passionate discussion, mounting to a war of books, which continued well into the eighteenthcentury. Upon this turbulent scene came JOHN FLOYER with his medical essay. The Physician Pulse-Watch praised the value of ancient learningand particularity the " art " and lore of pulse contained in the Chinese classic, the Nei Ching, fromwhich the celebratedtreatiseon pulse was composed. Just as WILLIAM WOTTON ( I666-1726), an opponent of the Ancients, to whom he refers (8i), claimed to be seeking a middle position between the two contestinggroups but was really on one side, so JOHN FLOYER following WOTTON, in some degree and the paradoxical compromise of BACON (82), decided that " ancient" meant " modern".
(77) CHARLESPERRAULT first gave preeminence to the Modems in his poem, Le siele deLouis le Grand,recitedin I687 at the meetingof FrenchAcademy. (78) Cf. valuable monographs on the French quarrel between the Ancients and Modems by HIPPOLYTE RIGAULT, Histoire de la querelle des anciens et des modernes, Paris, L. Hachette, I856, and HUBERT GILLOT, La querelledes anciens et des modernes en France, Paris, E. Champion, I9I4. (79) Cf. RICHARD FOSTER JONES, Ancientsand Moderns: A Study of the Backgroundof theBattle of theBooks (St. Louis, I936, WashingtonUniversityStudies, New Series, Language and Literature,No. 6), pp. 43-64. (8o) JAMES SPEDDING, R. L. ELLIS, D. D. HEATH, (ed.), WorksofFrancis Bacon, (new ed. 7 vols., London, i879-i890), vol. IV, pp. 59, 69, 83, 88, 344, 345, 357. (8i) The Physician Pulse-Watch, vol. I, pp. 23I. WOTTON'S life is given by in the Literary Anecdotes,vol. IV, pp. 253-263. WOTTON was a JOHN NICHOLS learned Anglican clergyman,and among other things interestedin Chinese and Oriental questions. (82) See R. F. JONES, op. cit., pp. 46-47.
151
But he really stood on the side of the Ancients. For him the ancient medicine of the Greeks and the Chinese was universal in its application and congenial to modern times with slight as he said, " corrections". adjustments, reservations and insignificant " Mr. WOTTON in his Reflections on ancient and modern learning", assertsFLOYER, " gives an Account of an ancientChinese Physick-Book,call'd Nuy Kim, which describes the Production of our Bodies; and the Relation of the several Parts, with the five Elements,which I will endeavour to Explain, thatI may vindicate the Chinese way of Practice,and findas much naturalPhylosophy in theirWritings,as was in HIPPOCRATES, in PLATO's and ARISTOTELE's Time, and their Anatomy was not more exact than the Chinese... The Asiatics have a gay luxurious Imagination, but and clearnessof the Europeans excel in Reasoning and Judgment, Expression" (83). Curiosityabout Chinese medicine undoubtedlyarose in England well before FLOYER'S interest was exhibited in the Specimen medicinaeSinicae (84). The descriptionsof China were read and translated into English (85), in -spite of having been originally writtenby the hated "popish" Jesuits. Sir WILLIAM TEMPLE (i628-i699), the great defenderof the ancient world against the Moderns, in An Essay upon theAncientand ModernLearning(86), literature on China (87). provedhe was well versedin themissionary
(83) The PhysicianPulse-Watch,vol. I, pp. 23 1-232. (84) The subject was treated in Jesuitwritingsin foreignlanguages or translations. JOHN OGILBY'S translationfromthe Dutch of the An Embassyfrom the East-India Company... (London, i673), also contains informationon Chinese "Physics and Chirurgery,"pp. I55, 2I2-232. (85) Cf. HENRI CORDIER, Bibliotheca Sinica: Dictionnaire bibliographique des ouvrages relatifsa' l'empire chinois (5 vols., Paris, I904-I924), cols. I4, 22, 25; Vol. III, ColS. 2347-2349. (86) Sir WILLIAM TEMPLE, An Essay upon the Ancient and Modern Learning, firstpublished in the second part of Miscellanea, London, i690; my text is from vOl. III, PP. 444-486, The Works of Sir William Temple, Bart. Complete. In Four Volumes. To Which is Prefixed, The Life and Character of the Author, ConsiderablyEnlarged. A New Edition. London, I874. The An Essay was followed by Some Thoughtsupon Reviewing the Essay of Ancient and Modern Learning,-for it, see also edition of i8I4, vOl. III, PP. 487-5i8. " Libertin" (87) Cf. CLARA MARBURG, Sir William Templea Seventeenth Century (New Haven, Yale University Press, I932), PP. 56-6o; HOMER E. WOODBRIDGE, Sir William Temple, The Man and his Work (New York, The Modern Language7 Association of America, I950), pp. 277, 282-284.
I52 TEMPLE
B. SZCZESNIAK
in his defence of antiquity included the ancient FarEastern countries,and (strangely)he seems inclined to attribute priorityto them as against Western culture, regardingthem as possibly the mother countries of Greek culture: " For whoever observesthe accountalreadygivenoftheancientIndian and Chinese learning and opinions, will easily find among them the seeds of " (88). But all these Grecian productions and institutions... special appreciation,a eulogy, of Chinese medicine, is found in TEMPLE'S Of Heroic Virtue (89). That praise, as we shall see, involved controversial judgments upon his opponents. TEMPLE'S evaluationof Chinese medical knowledgeis quite significant:
" ...The chemistsapply themselveschieflyto the search of the universalmedicine, for health and length of life, pretendingto make men immortal,if they can find it out: the physicians excel in the knowledge of the pulse, and of all simple medicines, and go little further;but in the firstare so skilful,as they pretend not only to tell by it, how many hours or days a sick man can last, but how many years a man in perfectseeming health may live, in case of no accident or violence. And by simples they pretend to relieve all deseases that nature will allow to be cured. They never let blood; but say, if the pot boil too fast, there is no need of lading out any of the water, but only of taking away the fire from under it; and so they allay all heats of the blood by abstinence, diet, and
cooling herbs " (go).
The Of Heroic Virtue influenced WILLIAM WOTTON, cogent adversaryof TEMPLE, in his Reflections upon Ancientand Modern Learning(9i) to dwell also on the philosophy and principles of
(88) An Essay, Works,vol. III, p. 457. (89) Works, vol. III, pp. 3I3-405. (go) Cf. Of Heroic Virtue,Works,vol. III, pp. 334-335. Reflectionsupon Ancient and Modern Learning. To which is Added a (gi) Defense. Thereof, in Answerto the Objections of Sir William Wotton, B. D. Also, a Dissertationupon the Epistles of Themistocles, Socrates, Euripides, etc. and the Fables Aesop. By R. Bentley,D.D. Third Edition Corrected. London: Printed for Tim. Goodwin, at the Queen's Head, against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet. MDCCV.Reflections followed pp. 47I-54I by the Ist edition of: //A //Defense //of the //Reflections//upon //Ancient and Modern Learning, //in Answer to the //Objections //of //Sir W. Temple, and Others. //With Observations upon //The Tale of a Tub. //London: //Printed for Tim. Goodwin, at the Queen's //Head, against St. Dunstan's Church //in Fleetstreet.MDCCV. // For what WOTTON means by " ancient and modern " see preface and p. I57, " means multiplied copies, but and conclusion pp. i6i, I7I, I73 (e.g. " printing not books). He acknowledges the advantages and advances of modern learning superiorto the ancient in many respects(e.g. geography,pp. 250-25i). He again and again extolls English learningover foreign. In this he is a typical Englishman. For his opposition to WM. TEMPLE cf. 38I-395.
JOHNFLOYER AND CHINESEMEDICINE
153
FLOYER, JOHN NICHOLS noted, " was a learned man, and among other things interestedin Chinese and Oriental questions" (93). on Chinese learning he took from the source The information which later served Sir JOHN FLOYER in writinghis Pulse-Watch. WOTTON's appreciationof Chinese medical lore may be in itself a subject forthe study of English sinophilism,but here it suffices the attention to quote him occasionally,forit was he who attracted of the Lichfielddoctor,as Sir JOHN admittedin his work. WILLIAM WOTTON referred to the glorificationof Chinese learning by ISAAK VOSSIUS (i6i8-i689) (94) especially to his knowledge of pulse (95), and to the Sir WILLIAM TEMPLE'S commendation of " Chinese Physic" (96). And not being satisfied of the Specimen he studiedthe treatises withtheirblind admiration, " not verypleasant to read " (97). medicinae Sinicae and foundthem To save the patience of the reader he gives " a shortSpecimen of them by which one may judge the rest" (98). His translation from CLEYER, which inspired JOHN FLOYER, is the firstEnglish versionof this portionof the Chinese classic of internalmedicine. (99): It deserves,therefore, to be quoted in extenso
Out of the Eastern Region arises the Wind, out of the Wind Wood, or Plants, out of Wood Acidity,fromthencethe Liver, fromthe Liver the Nerves, fromthem the Heart: The Liver is generatedthe Third in Order, and perfectedthe Eighth: The Spirits of the Liver, as they relate to the Heaven (the Air) are Wind; as Wood in the Earth, as the Nerves in our Bodies, so is the Liver in the Limbs: Its Colour is Blue, and its Use and Action is to move the Nerves: The Eyes are the Windows of the Liver; its Taste is acid, its Passion or Affection is Anger: Anger hurts the Liver, but Sorrow and Compassion conquer Anger, because chapter XII, pp. (92) Reflections, Indians and Chinese."
(93) See note 8Ii.
I37-I57,
Chinese medicine(92).
with WILLIAM WOTTON, contemporaneous
" Of the Learning of the Ancient
(94) Cf. " De artibus et scientiis Sinarum ", Chap. XIV, pp. 69-85, Isaaci liber. Londini, Prostant apud Robertum Scott Vossii variarum observationum THOMAS SECCOMBE in The Dictionary of National Bibliopolam. MDCLXXXV. pp. 329-396, remarked about Vossius Biography (London-Oxford, 1921-1922), (p. 395): ThroughoutthisworkVossius gave freevein to his capricious imagination and to his love of paradox. He passes an extravaganteulogy on the Chinese civilisation..." p. I47. (95) Reflections, (96) An Essay, Works,vol. III, pp. 455-457. p. I48. (97) Reflections, (98) Ibid., p. I48. (99) SpecimenmedicinaeSinicae, pp. 85-87.
154
B. SZCZESNIAK
Sorrow is the Passion of the Lungs, and the Lungs are Enemies to the Liver: Winds hurtsthe Nerves, but Drought, the Quality of the Lungs, conquers Wind: Acidity hurts the Nerves, but Acrimony,or that sharp Taste which is proper to the Lungs, conquers Acidity, or Metal conquers Wood. Out of the SouthernRegion arises Heat, out of Heat Fire, out of Fire Bitterness fromit the Heart is generated,thence the Blood, out of Blood comes the Spleen, or Earth out of Fire; the Heart governsthe tongue; thatwhich is Heat in Heaven, Fire upon Earth, Pulsation in the Body, is the Heart in the Members: Its Colour is Red, has the Sound of Laughing; itsVicissitudesare Joyand Sorrow; the Tongue is its Window, its Taste Bitterness, its Passion Joy; too much Joyhurtsthe Heart; but Fear, the Passion of the Reins, which are Enemies to the Heart, conquers Joy: Heat hurtsthe Spirits,but Cold conquers Heat: Bitternesshurtsthe Spirits, but Saltness of the Reins conquers Bitterness,or Water quenches Fire. The Heart is generatedthe Second in Order, and is perfectedthe Seventh. Out of the Middle Region ariseth Moisture; out of that Earth; out of Earth Sweetness; fromSweetness cometh the Spleen, Flesh fromthat, and the Lungs from Flesh: The Spleen governs the Mouth; that which is Moisture in the Heaven, is Earth in Earth, Flesh in the Body, and the Spleen in the Members: Its Colour is Yellow; it has the Sound of Singing; its Window is the Mouth, its Taste is sweet, its Passion is much Thoughtfulness: Thoughtfulness hurts the Spleen, but Anger conquers Thoughtfulness: Moisture hurts Flesh, but Wind conquers Moisture : Sweetness hurtsFlesh, but Acidityconquers Sweetness: In a word, Wood conquers Earth,or the Liver theSpleen. The Spleen, is generated the Fifth in Order, and is perfectedthe Tenth. Out of the Western Region arises Drought: Thence come Metals, fromthem comes Sharpness, out of that are the Lungs, out of the Lungs come Skin and Hair, out of Skin and Hair come the Reins; the Lungs govern the Nostrils: That which is Drought in the Heaven (or Air) is Metal in the Earth, Hair and Skin in the Body, and Lungs in the Members: Its Colour is Within,has the Sound of Weeping; its Windows are the Nostrils,its Taste is sharp,itsPassion is Sorrow: Sorrow hurtsthe Lungs, but Joyconquers Sorrow: Heat hurtsthe Skin and Hair, but the Cold of the Reins conquers Heat: Sharpness hurts the Skin and Hair, but Bitterness conquers Sharpness. The Lungs are generated the Fourth in Order, and are perfectedthe Ninth. Out of the NorthernRegion arises Cold, out Cold comes Water, thenceSaltness, thence the Reins, thence the Marrow of the Bones, thence the Liver. The Reins govern the Ears; that which is Cold in the Air, Water in the Earth, Bones in the Body, is Reins in the Members: Its Colour is Blackish, has the Sound of Sobbing; its Windows are the Ears, its Taste is Saltness, its Passion is Fear: Fear hurts the Reins, but Thoughtfulnessconquers Fear: Cold hurts the Blood, but Drought conquers Cold: Saltness hurts the Blood, but Sweetness conquers Saltness. The Reins are generatedthe First in Order, and perfectedthe Sixth ".
This translation from BOYM's work ascribed by himselfis followedby the remarksof Wm. WOTTON:
CLEYER
to
" The Missionary who sent this Account to Cleyer a Physician at Batavia, was
155
afraid(ioo) that it would be thoughtridiculous by Europeans; which Fear of his seems to have been well grounded. Another who lived long in China, wrote also an Account of the Chinese Notions of the Nature and Differencesof Pulses, which he (ioi) professes that he would not undertake to prove by European Principles. One may judge of their Worth by the followingSpecimen (Ioz): 'The Chinese divide the Body into Three Regions: The First is from the Head to the Diaphragm: The Second from thence to the Navel, containing Stomach, Spleen, Liver and Gall, and the Third to the Feet, containing the Bladder, Ureters, Reins and Guts. To these Three Regions, they assign Three sorts of Pulses in each Hand. The uppermostPulse is governed by the and great. The radical Heat, and is thereforein its own Nature overflowing lowermost is governed by the Radical Moisture, which lies deeper than the rest,and is like a Root to the restof the Branches : The middlemostlies between them both, partakes equally of Radical Heat and Moisture, and answers to the middle Region of the Body, as the uppermost and lowermostdo to the other two. By these Three sorts of Pulses, they pretend to examine all sorts of Acute Diseases, and these also are examined Three several Ways: Diseases in the Left-Side are shown by the Pulses on the Left-Hand, and Diseases in the Right-sideby the Pulses of the Right'. It would be tedious to dwell any longer upon such Notions as these, which every Page in Cleyer's Book is full of: The Anatomical Figures annexed to the Tracts, which also were sent out of China, are so very whimsical, that a Man would almost believe the whole to be a Banter, if these Theories were not agreeable to the occasional Hints that may found in the Travels of the Missionaries. This, however,is not Prejudicial to theirSimple Medicines, which may, perhaps, be very admirable, and which a long Experience may have taught the Chinese to apply with great success; and it is possible that they may sometimesgive not unhappy Guesses on ordinaryCases, by feeling theirPatients' Pulses: Still this is littleto Physic,as an Art; and however,the Chinese may be allowed to be excellent Empiricks,as many of the West-Indian Savages are, yet it cannot be believed that they can be tolerable Philosophers; which, in an Enquiry into the Learning of any Nation, is the First Question that is to be considered".
It is evidentfromthe study of FLOYER'S Pulse-Watchthat,conof W. WOTTON, a Modern,he gave recognifounding, the intentions tion to the Chinese Physic. FLOYER in explaining and defending Chinese anatomy, (discountenanced by WOTTON), especially praised their knowledgeof the pulse and its behaviour. of Sir WILLIAM TEMPLE and of his FLOYER, a contemporary quarrel with the Moderns, may be considered as a perpetuator of that " battle of books " towards the recognitionof Chinese ancient learning which resulted in the modern inventionof the
(ioo) Ibid., p. 87. " Risum forteplus movebit Europaeo quam plausum." (ioi) Ibid., p. 2. " Haudquaquam suscipiam principia ista principiisnostribus probanda." (IoZ) Ibid., pp. 3-4.
156
B. SZCZESNIAK
pulse-watch and in modern advances in medical examination. MICHAEL BoYM's workon Chinese medicinethe Specimen medicinae Sinicae, edited firstby the plagiaristANDREAS CLEYER and later more honourablyby PHILIPPE COUPLET as Clavis medicinae Sinicae, indirectlyadvanced modern medical science. Evidently it was unknownto those who quarrelledover the relativevalue of ancient and modern learning-to Sir WILLIAM TEMPLE, to WILLIAM WOTTON, to ISAAK VOSSIUS (103) and to Sir JOHN FLOYER (104). (University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana).
BOLESLAW SZCZESNIAK.
(103) JOHN FLOYER says on p. 432, vol. I, of his The Pulse-Watch: " I findthat the learn'd Isaac Vossius has been hardly used for the favorable report he has given of the Chinese Art; but this may be said for him, that he has not asserted more about thatArt,than may be foundin Cleyer's Specimen, whichwas published before Vossius wrote; and since that learned person took his good opinion of that Art from Cleyer's book, I cannot be thoughtsingularin my explicationand approbation of that Art; but in this particularI must differfromVossius, that Avicenna had some knowledge of the Chinese Art by the Chinese inhabiting Cathaya Nigra; since what Avicenna has written is a perfect fromGalen's. transcript book, and has nothing like the Chinese Art; neitherhave the Arabians improved eitherthe Notions of experience deliver'd by Galen; the Chinese Art may further be discerned by their nice Computations." I am happy to acknowledge my debt to a British colleague, Professor(104) JOHN J. HOOKER, who has, from time to time, eliminated from my MS some of the more startling evidences of the fact that English is not my mother-tongue. He, however, bears responsibilityfor none of the sentimentsexpressed, except the present one.

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John Floyer and Chinese Medicine Author(s): Boleslaw Szczesniak Source: Osiris, Vol. 11 (1954), pp.

and Chinese JohnFloyer Medicine

Athenae Oxoniensesan Exact Historyof all the Writers

JOHN FLOYER AND CHINESE MEDICINE

JOHN FLOYER AND CHINESE MEDICINE

Cf. The Tatler, vol. I (London, 1797), No.

Saturday, May 14,

JOHN FLOYER AND CHINESE MEDICINE

To ExplaintheOld Art ofF E E L I N G the P U L S E, andtoIMprove it bythe helpo a P U L S E-WA T C H.

The Pulse-Watch, vol. I, ff. I-3v.

Ibid., f. 3r. Ibid., f. 3v.

JOHN FLOYER AND CHINESE MEDICINE

JOHN FLOYER AND CHINESE MEDICINE

If Sir JOHN FLOYER deserves some criticism because

(40), a contemporary of FLOYER'S,

JOHN FLOYER AND CHINESE MEDICINE

The Pulse-Watch, vol. I, pp. 339-424.

(47) Ibid.,p. 424.

JOHN FLOYER AND CHINESE MEDICINE

JOHNFLOYER AND CHINESEMEDICINE

JOHN FLOYER AND CHINESE MEDICINE

Tiis . mq dinmiw ete

Gio: &ibrillo Em*. Appictfo rn SVr9tJO'0f)E 1PRJVrlElJE COX ErI;Z.

JOHN FLOYER AND CHINESE MEDICINE

JOHN FLOYER AND CHINESE MEDICINE

JOHNFLOYER AND CHINESEMEDICINE

with WILLIAM WOTTON, contemporaneous

" Of the Learning of the Ancient

JOHN FLOYER AND CHINESE MEDICINE

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